CNN
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Dame Maggie Smith is one of Britain’s best-known actresses, whose long career has spanned from starring alongside Laurence Olivier in Othello on stage and screen to roles in Harry Potter and Downton Abbey died, her sons announced in a statement from their publicist Clair Dobbs.

She was 89.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in hospital this morning, Friday September 27th. A very private person, she ended up with friends and family,” the statement said. “She leaves behind two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and tireless kindness during her final days.”

Smith was born in 1934 in Ilford, then a middle-class suburb in east London. Shortly before the start of the Second World War, the family moved to Oxford, where her father worked as a pathologist at Oxford University.

After graduating from high school, Smith attended the Oxford Playhouse School from 1951 to 1953 and made her stage debut in an Oxford University Dramatic Society production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

She then appeared on Broadway in New Faces of 1956 and then had the lead comedian role in the London revue Share My Lettuce between 1957 and 1958. She was soon appearing regularly in plays at The Old Vic Theater in London.

In 1964 she played Desdemona in Olivier’s Othello, before reprising the role in the film adaptation the following year. Smith won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1969 for her portrayal of an unconventional teacher in the film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”

In 1978, she received a second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actress, for her performance in Neil Simon’s “California Suite.” She also received British Academy Film Awards for her work, including for her roles in 1985’s “A Room with a View” and 1987’s “The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.”

Smith was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990 and was henceforth widely known as Dame Maggie Smith.

But in many ways her best roles were yet to come, including a lead role in the 1999 classic “Tea with Mussolini,” about a group of upper-middle-class English women in Fascist-era Florence, Italy, directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

Perhaps she will be best remembered as an actress who managed to achieve not only longevity but even greater fame later in life.

She came to the attention of younger viewers as the strict but fair witch teacher Minerva McGonagall in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2001) and also appeared in several “Harry Potter” sequels.

She received renewed acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic for her portrayal of the acerbic Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in Downton Abbey, the acclaimed historical drama about the British aristocracy. For this role she received three Emmy Awards, which she repeated for a feature film in 2019.

In her later years, Smith became a role model for aging gracefully, a process she mastered with her usual charm and wit.

When asked by British magazine Women’s World in 2017 why she hasn’t attended more awards shows, Smith replied: “I really think if I went to Los Angeles, for example, I would scare people… They do “It doesn’t.” “I don’t see any older people.”

Smith was married twice, from 1975 until his death in 1998, to actor Robert Stephens – the couple divorced in 1974 – and again to playwright Beverley Cross.

She is survived by her two sons, actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens.